When You Wait To Call An Ambulance, Your Friends Die

We’re very obviously a comedy site centered around the fraternity experience, but every so often we break away from that mission to address real problems facing Greek life and college students across the country. This is one of those times.

The State College Police Department provided additional details today of the incident at Beta Theta Pi fraternity on Thursday, February 2, that led to the death of Penn State student Timothy Piazza. Emergency services were not contacted until 10:49 a.m. Friday morning — nearly 12 hours after fraternity members said Piazza fell down the basement steps during a party.

When patrol officers responded to the call, Piazza was unconscious. He was transported by ambulance to Mt. Nittany Medical Center Friday morning but was later flown to Hershey Medical Center. The Dauphin County coroner pronounced Piazza dead Saturday morning. The county will perform an autopsy.

Evidence is still being reviewed, so I’m not going to jump to any conclusions here. For all we know, Piazza was completely lucid after his fall and only fell unconscious a number of hours later due to internal injury, subsequently prompting the Betas to contact emergency services. But if it turns out that Tim Piazza died due to the inaction of a group of people who decided that their fraternity — one whose core values include responsible conduct, mutual assistance, integrity, and trust — was more important than his life, then there’s very clearly a tragic institutional problem at play here.

I understand that, when you’re an undergraduate, there’s nothing more important to you than your fraternity. I’ve been there. I’ve lived that. To an active, the mere idea of their fraternity being kicked off campus or having its charter pulled is absolutely terrifying; one of the worst things they can legitimately imagine happening to them. Their chapter composes such a large part of their college and developmental identity that they’d feel lost without it; incomplete… And yes, I understand how silly that sounds. Even when I, someone who’s been heavily involved in Greek life for the past 5+ years, read the words I just wrote, I find the whole idea that a fraternity can be so incredibly important to its members to be bizarre — but it’s just how it is; I can’t explain it any more than that. So to that extent, I understand the idea of chapter preservation feeling like a priority to all members.

But there are times when the possibility of your chapter being taken away from you must be willingly put on the table. When a human life is on the line is one of those times.

In some way, shape, or form, the idea that a fraternity member would do all he could to save another human’s life is reflected in every Greek organization’s values. And the idea that any fraternity member would intentionally disregard those values in order to protect the organization that exists solely for its members to live by them? What an affront to the whole basis of morality and fraternity. Sickening.

The true problem lies in the university’s inability to make partying safer. College students (even GDIs) WILL party, no matter what measures the university takes. So why not make it safer, and allow us to call the police when someone is injured without massive sanctions coming down on us?

Good, good point. Most institutions have a policy that if you call 911 on a drug or alcohol related injury no reprocussions will follow. It’s a life saving policy and I hope it becomes implemented more widely.

Yes, the institutional problem is the one the universities have and also the outside condemnation of fraternities and the entire Greek system for any type of infraction. No matter how much good the Greek system does one little thing causes mass outrage. TFM just had that 3 part article series about someone fighting the standards board to keep their frat on campus, and one of the main points against them was whether it took 15 minutes or 30 minutes to call an ambulance. When you get hung out to dry for responding nearly immediately it makes these things harder to deal with. Of course there is no excuse for letting this happen if they knew there was an issue the night before, but the institutional problem isn’t with the Greek system, it’s with the system that causes these delayed reactions and issues.

I know in Missouri there’s a Good Samaritan law. If you call the ambulance for a life threatening situation, no questions asked in and out. What’s still a problem is people not admitting how much drugs/alcohol someone has consumed.

Good article. I will say in defense, they were probably all drunk and didn’t know how dire it was. They pulled a classic “let him sleep it off” not knowing how serious the situation was or how hurt he was… Alcohol can really fuck up your perception and thinking as we all know, RIP kid.

Yeah I think everyone has. And 95% of the time, they do sleep it off and wake up with a funny story and a hurt body. But yeah that 5% isn’t worth it, college kids need to be more aware and diligent than I think, even if it’s annoying and ruins the night.

I’m greek here at psu, and according to some girls I know who were there for their sorority initiation (girls don’t have houses here), he fell down the stairs really drunk and it looked like he broke his neck, but he got up immediately and told everyone “I’m good”. The brothers thought the kid was too hammered and just put him on the couch, then the next morning he wouldn’t wake up. I don’t know if it’s true, but that’s the most repeated version of the story circulating campus at the moment

I’m Greek here at Penn State too. You are utterly and completely wrong. Fuck you for posting these sheer lies for all of the world to see and believe. Rest in peace to Tim Piazza and prayers to his friends and family.

The only story I’ve heard “circulating through campus” is that he fell down the stairs and no one knew where he was until they found him on the verge of death in the basement, at which point they called emergency services.

If your school and fraternity have an amnesty program, use it. If either don’t, actively advocate for one. Regardless, always call 911 immediately if there’s an emergency. Your chapter will never be more valuable than your brother’s life.

A rushee no one knew came to an off campus party my fraternity was throwing. This kid either took hard drugs before arriving or he did them in the bathroom. All of a sudden this kid no one knew straight up OD’s. We called 911. Ambulance came and took him to the hospital where they saved his life. His parents personally thanked the fraternity for calling an ambulance and helping to save his life. University kicked our fraternity off campus for 2 years.

What message did the school send to my fraternity? Basically do not call 911 if someone is in trouble at one of your events because they will be taken to the closest hospital that is part of the University and the school will drop the hammer on your fraternity. Once back on campus, our new risk management policy was to either drive(or find someone sober) to drive anyone who was OD’ing, suffering alcohol poisoning, etc…to the hospital that was 10-15 minutes further away that was not associated with the university.

No shit it was a terrible policy. But this is what happens when idiotic university officials continue to unfairly slam fraternities with their “If anything gets in the news, your fraternity is getting kicked off campus policy regardless if you are guilty or completely innocent.” When the news prints “student almost dies at __ frat party” the university axes you even if all you did was save a random kid who was not in your fraternity from dying and did not contribute in any way to the kid OD’ing.

This was almost exactly how my old swim coach passed away. Fell off the roof, brothers didn’t realize he did, he was alone. Thought he slipped and fell on the sidewalk. Put him to bed. Never woke up. Rip Jeff

For people to put the blame on the university here and say they don’t “make partying safe enough” is a complete cop out. If someone is in need of medical attention, it is your RESPONSIBILITY and DUTY to get them the help they require. You all put yourself into that situation and all actions have consequences. Yes, people are going to party regardless, but that does not make it okay to shift the blame onto the university to scapegoat from your clear lack of responsibility. Own up to mistakes and make sure people get the help they deserve for actions you all KNOWINGLY took. Figure it out.

I’ve actually been in this situation, and not on the side where I had a choice in the matter unfortunately. Spring break in ’13, I decided that my drinking skills were unmatched, and I went shot for shot with with my grand big. 22 shots later and a rough ride back to our condo, and I couldn’t open my eyes or talk, and they said I was vomiting red at first, then pitch black. My big decided that I was fine and I should just “sleep it off.” I’m glad his girlfriend thought otherwise, because her calling an ambulance probably saved my life. But in that case, it wasn’t necessarily due to fear of backlash on the fraternity. It was due to fear of legal repercussions because we were just a bunch of kids under 21 drinking like fish. I’m just glad there are more protective good Samaritan laws now.

They probably thought he just passed out drinking like people do. If they had known something was injured like that I’m sure they would have called the cops. Especially if their fraternity was that strong because that’s the definition of brotherhood. They would have saved him. Tragic situation, prayers out to all involved

I’m Greek here at PSU. I’m not a brother of Beta nor do I know anyone in or affiliated with that house, however I do know that no one knows what truly happened. No assumptions should be made until all information has been publicized, and certainly no examples should be made of the “alleged negligence” of the fraternity brothers. To make this incident into an example without knowing ANY facts is to essentially piss on his tombstone. I’m an active member of my fraternity, and to say I would ever let one of my own brothers DIE for the sake of ensuring the future of my chapter is fucking disgusting. This article is ignorant, disrespectful, and downright despicable. I can confidently say the much of the Penn State University student body will endorse my demand that this article be removed immediately. Rest in peace Tim Piazza.

What? I’m a Penn State (girl, obviously, former sorority member) and I simply don’t understand why this article is so offensive to “much of the Penn State University student body.” I think this is well-written and shows the kind of thinking that can SOMETIMES go through brothers’ heads. Nobody is articulating that this is what happened in Beta’s case. This should be a reminder to keep your eyes open and do the right thing. What happened to Timothy Piazza was a tragic accident, and I’m so heartbroken for his family and brothers. But please, this article was written for a reason, and it sure as hell wasn’t to assume anything or condemn a fraternity.

lol I go to psu. This fraternity is a bottom teir, on campus,”DRY” and retarded. Due to the lack of competence from their inbred brotherhood, Greek life might die at penn state. It’s starting to look like we all might go unrecognized because of a push to end socials and parties. Smh. Don’t let people die guys…